Improvement over time - LOTS of time.

A much better try at the backyard laundry line. I don't have it yet: in an attempted to merge the dark shapes and dramatize the sunshine, I turned the wooden clothespins into rock, with mud on the sides.  In an odd way, they  are putting me in mind of the Easter Island faces.   But the patterns I invented in the sheets are making me VERY happy.  I  need to try again, and have already started the next version.  Same composition, better choices of color and handling of the background and the pins, I hope.

"On the way to the dumpster" (who posted that just recently?) I discovered my original laundry line image - already chopped, and the middle section is missing (woe is me). Apparently I'd been utilizing the back for something else.  Anyway, this is what's left - even worse than I remembered, but I'll share it because it IS almost 20 years ago, after all.  And then I'll get these really awful little disasters into the recycle bin.  Isn't it nice to know we can all get better EVENTUALLY?

CIRCA 1995 -NOT new !!!!!

Donna Zagotta on Georgia O'Keefe

This blog post by Donna Zagotta is so dead on for me, I hope you will all take time to read it.
    Here is the .LINK.

The phrase that resonated: "this thing that is your own".
The action with which  I could identify : analyzing my work to recognize the (many) influences that are NOT necessarily my own.

What could be more important than finding the thing that is your own? 

Simplify, focus on what I like

I probably already said that landscapes are not my strength. I quickly determined that a page full of the backyard's contents would not even hold  MY interest, let alone anyone else's.  It would certainly just turn out to be a "depiction" of a place.
So I focused on what attracted me in the first place, the laundry line.  In this first little watercolor sketch, I caught the feeling of the wind blowing through my sheets. But I've lost the warmth of the sunshine.

My next try may be to drill down even further, to the clothespin holding the sheet to the line.  I tried for a source photo this morning,  but of course as soon as I had the idea the weather changed: no sun (I want those shadows), and WAY too much heat.

Trite, trite, trite

Oh, my next painting is going to be SOOOOO trite.   But, in keeping with my resolution to go back to having FUN while I paint, I'm going with an impulse.  I do love our little suburban back yard, and can't get enough of it when there is a line of laundry hanging there. . I've been known to stand at the kitchen sink window and just smile at the yard when the sun and breeze are tossing my sheets and making them smell wonderful.

Here's my sweet little back yard

So, this week I sketched for a while (until the mosquitoes drove me back inside), then took a bunch of pictures and am now drawing the various elements of the yard that truly make me happy. Trying to reorganize the elements into a good composition, as I think most landscape painters may do (yes?).  Many years ago, as a new painter,  I succumbed to this same temptation and ended up with such an embarrassing mess, it's been painted over with gesso and re-purposed long ago.  No images remain, except in my head.   The memory of that one has kept me from trying again - until now. 

And here are some first sketches.

By the way, we live in an OLD suburb, thank goodness:  

none of those snooty neighborhood association rules  - I hope YOU, dear reader, are not a laundry snob.  And while we are on pet peeves, does anyone else have issues with neighbors with lawn services that use (loud) blowers to "clean" off lawns after mowing, throwing all the dirt into the air, onto clean laundry, and through open windows?

Okay, end rant.